B.C. Day: 50 fun facts about the province

B.C. Day: 50 fun facts about the province

The world's largest tin soldier in New Westminster was the brainchild of mayoral candidate Wayne Wright.Photo by
Glenn Baglo

1. The world's largest hockey stick resides in Duncan, and measures 205 feet long and 61,000 pounds. The mammoth symbol of hockey was created for Expo 86 and acquired by the city of Duncan afterwards.

2. The eco-activist group Greenpeace was formed in Vancouver in 1971 3. Actress Pamela Anderson was named Canada's "Centennial Baby," being the first child born in the country on the 100th celebration of Canada Day (4:08 a.m., July 1, 1967, in Ladysmith).

4. Mile 0 of the 7,699-kilometre Trans Canada Highway (the largest national highway in the world) is located at the intersection of Douglas Road and Dallas Street in Victoria.

5. Khutzeymateen Provincial Park is Canada's only Grizzly Bear sanctuary, home to more than 50 grizzlies across its 44,300 hectare grounds.

6. There is an annual flower count in Victoria at the tail end of winter. More than one billion blooms are counted by the community every year.

8. The largest tin soldier in the world is located in New Westminster.

9. ORCA FM, the world's first "all whales, all the time" radio station, was started on Vancouver Island in 1998.

10. In North America, Vancouver is second only to Los Angeles in TV production and third in feature film production. So in case you are wondering, yes; that was a famous Vancouver landmark you saw on your favourite TV show.

11. The provincial flower of B.C. is the Dogwood.

12. "The Eye of The Wind," the world's only working wind turbine with a viewing platform, is located on Grouse Mountain 13. The first sighting of Ogopogo, the legendary (and debated) sea serpent of the Okanagan Lake, took place in 1872. This predates the first recorded sighting of the Loch Ness Monster by more than 60 years.

14. The fourth-largest cruise ship terminal in the world is located in Vancouver.

15. Nanaimo is the Bathtub Racing capital of the world.

16. The Sam Kee building located at 8 West Pender St. in Vancouver is considered by Ripley's and the Guinness Book of Records to be the narrowest commercial building in the world.

17. The official motto of B.C. is "Splendour without Diminishment."

18. Some 961 kilometres of the Trans-Canada Highway is in B.C. 19. Although the Canucks have come up short three times, two B.C. teams have won the coveted Stanley Cup - the 1915 Vancouver Millionaires and the 1925 Victoria Cougars.

20. The International 3-Day Novel Contest, a Labour Day tradition challenging writers to complete a novel in 72 hours, started in a Vancouver bar in 1977 and is still going strong today. It was even the subject of a reality show in 2006.

21. The length of B.C.'s coastline is over 27,000 kilometres.

22. B.C. Place was the first covered stadium in Canada.

23. Half the population of British Columbia lives in the Metro Vancouver area.

24. British Columbia is four times the size of Great Britain.

25. Della Falls in Strathcona Provincial Park on Vancouver Island is the highest waterfall in Canada at 440 metres (or 1,444 feet). That's more than eight times the height of Niagara Falls.

26. Strathcona Provincial Park can also lay claim to being the oldest provincial park in B.C., opening in 1911.

27. The Kits Pool in Kitsilano is the longest pool in Canada at 137 metres (or 150 yards) long.

28. There are more than 864 vineyards in British Columbia. 29. From 1947 to 1986, it was illegal to sell stoves on a Wednesday within Vancouver city limits. Outside city limits? It was the wild west of stove selling.

30. Alcohol was prohibited in B.C. from 1917 to 1921.

31. The B.C. beer industry is booming, with more than 100 breweries located around the province.

32. There are only 30 countries larger than B.C. (and one state: Alaska).

33. Osoyoos Lake is the warmest freshwater lake in Canada.

34. The "Hanging Garden Tree" on Meares Island near Tofino is one of the world's oldest known western red cedars, estimated to be anywhere between 1,500 to 2,000 years old.

35. The first and oldest Chinatown in Canada is located in Victoria. The only Chinatown in North America that is older is in San Francisco.

36. B.C. resident Jim Pattison is the third richest person in Canada (and the 177th richest person in the entire world) with a net worth of 7.5 billion dollars.

37. The Jim Pattison Group owns both the Ripley's Believe It Or Not! franchise and the Guinness World Book company.

38. Speaking of Guinness, the world record for "Longest Beard" for a living male is held by Surrey resident Sarwan Singh, whose beard measures an astonishing 2.33 metres (or 7 .75 feet).

39. British Columbia became the second Canadian province to legalize same-sex marriage on July 8, 2003. (Ontario was first on June 10 of the same year)

40. Vancouver became incorporated the same year the automobile and Coca-Cola were invented. Celebrate that this weekend by drinking a Coke and driving your car around Vancouver (watch for cyclists).

41. Victoria is known as the cycling capital of Canada, with more cyclists per capita than anywhere else in the country. Nearly six per cent of all residents travel by bicycle.

42. Fairweather Mountain is the highest point in B.C. at 4,663 metres (or 15,299 feet).

43. The comedy-drama series The Beachcombers was shot in Gibsons, and ran for 387 episodes from 1972 to1990. It was the longest-running Canadian drama series ever until it was dethroned by Degrassi in 2012.

44. The cosmetic treatment Botox was invented in Vancouver in the year 2000.

45. The Weather Network named Prince Rupert the wettest city in the country, with an average of 239.7 days of rain a year, amounting to a whopping 2593.6 mm of rain a year.

46. The largest park in the province is Tweedsmuir Park, at 989,616 hectares. The smallest park in the province is Memory Island, which is less than one hectare.

47. Ucluelet holds the Canadian record for most rainfall in a single day, as a staggering 489 mm fell from the sky on Oct. 6, 1967.

48. Having just been announced by the CW network for an 11th season, the filmed-in-B. C. series Supernatural will unseat Smallville (also filmed in B.C.) as the longest-running consecutive sci-fi series.

49. There are more than 10,700 vehicle accessible campgrounds in B.C.

50. B.C. was the sixth province added to Canada, and it joined the confederation on July 20, 1871. It has been the best ever since (not a "fact" necessarily, but ... c'mon. We all know it's true).

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